U is for Umbrella

Here in Kerala, umbrellas are a very important accoutrement, especially during the monsoon.  Since schools here begin their new year, with the start of the monsoon, one of the very important back-to-school items is an umbrella.
The ads for the various umbrellas start from sometime in May.  The different brands vie with one another, in coming up with interesting looking umbrellas.  But frankly speaking, since our monsoon rains are really strong, not even a really good raincoat can keep the wet out on a really rainy day, let alone an umbrella!  Hence, at the school which my kids went to, the junior classes were not allowed to use umbrellas and were allowed only raincoats.  So, it was almost like a rite of passage to becoming a high school student, to get an umbrella.  I remember that my boys and friends took to carrying the old fashioned umbrella, a black brolly,  to announce to all that they were no longer 'little'.
Here is a picture of the original Kerala umbrellas

Old style palm leaf umbrella